A child in the sixth grade in a Sunday School in New York City, with
the encouragement of her teacher, wrote to Einstein in Princeton on 19
January I936 asking him whether scientists pray, and if so what they pray
for. Einstein replied as follows on 24 January 1936:

I have tried to respond to your question as simply as I could. Here
is my answer.

Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes
place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the
actions of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly be
inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by
a wish addressed to a supernatural Being.

However, it must be admitted that our actual knowledge of these laws
is only imperfect and fragmentary, so that, actually, the belief in the
existence of basic all-embracing laws in Nature also rests on a sort of
faith. All the same this faith has been largely justified so far by the
success of scientific research.

But, on the other hand, every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit
of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the
Universe -- a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face
of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit
of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed
quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.

It is worth mentioning that this letter was written a decade after the
advent of Heisenberg's principle of indeterminacy and the probabilistic
interpretation of quantum mechanics with its denial of strict determinism.

In 1954 or 1955 Einstein received a letter citing a statement of
his and a seemingly contradictory statement by a noted evolutionist concerning
the place of intelligence in the Universe. Here is a translation of the
German draft of a reply. It is not known whether a reply was actually sent:

The misunderstanding here is due to a faulty translation of a German
text, in particular the use of the word "mystical." I have never
imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be understood
as anthropomorphic.

What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend
only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling
of "humility." This is a genuinely religious feeling that has
nothing to do with mysticism.

The next excerpt is a letter written by Einstein in response to a
19-year-old Rutger's University student, who had written to Einstein of
his despair at seeing no visible purpose to life and no help from religion.

In responding to this poignant cry for help, Einstein offered no
easy solace, and this very fact must have heartened the student and lightened
the lonely burden of his doubts. Here is Einstein's response. It was written
in English and sent from Princeton on 3 December 1950, within days of receiving
the letter:

I was impressed by the earnestness of your struggle to find a purpose
for the life of the individual and of mankind as a whole. In my opinion
there can be no reasonable answer if the question is put this way. If we
speak of the purpose and goal of an action we mean simply the question:
which kind of desire should we fulfill by the action or its consequences
or which undesired consequences should be prevented? We can, of course,
also speak in a clear way of the goal of an action from the standpoint
of a community to which the individual belongs. In such cases the goal
of the action has also to do at least indirectly with fulfillment of desires
of the individuals which constitute a society.

If you ask for the purpose or goal of society as a whole or of an individual
taken as a whole the question loses its meaning. This is, of course, even
more so if you ask the purpose or meaning of nature in general. For in
those cases it seems quite arbitrary if not unreasonable to assume somebody
whose desires are connected with the happenings.

Nevertheless we all feel that it is indeed very reasonable and important
to ask ourselves how we should try to conduct our lives. The answer is,
in my opinion: satisfaction of the desires and needs of all, as far as
this can be achieved, and achievement of harmony and beauty in the human
relationships. This presupposes a good deal of conscious thought and of
self-education. It is undeniable that the enlightened Greeks and the old
Oriental sages had achieved a higher level in this all-important field
than what is alive in our schools and universities.

On 17 July I953 a woman who was a licensed Baptist pastor sent Einstein
in Princeton a warmly appreciative evangelical letter. Quoting several
passages from the scriptures, she asked him whether he had considered the
relationship of his immortal soul to its Creator, and asked whether he
felt assurance of ever lasting life with God after death. It is not known
whether a reply was sent, but the letter is in the Einstein Archives, and
on it, in Einstein's hand writing, is the following sentence, written in
English:

I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics
to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind
it.

From p. 40

In Berlin in February 1921 Einstein received from a woman in Vienna
a letter imploring him to tell her if he had formed an opinion as to whether
the soul exists and with it personal, individual development after death.
There were other questions of a similar sort. On 5 February 1921 Einstein
answered at some length. Here in part is what he said:

The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the
rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no
more than a symptom of weakness and confusion.

Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions and combinations
of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seems to me
to be empty and devoid of meaning.

On 22 March 1954 a self-made man sent Einstein in Princeton a long
handwritten letter-four closely packed pages in English. The correspondent
despaired that there were so few people like Einstein who had the courage
to speak out, and he wondered if it would not be best to return the world
to the animals. Saying "I presume you would like to know who I am,"
he went on to tell in detail how he had come from Italy to the United States
at the age of nine, arriving in bitter cold weather, as a result of which
his sisters died while he barely survived; how after six months of schooling
he went to work at age ten; how at age seventeen he went to Evening School;
and so on, so that now he had a regular job as an experimental machinist,
had a spare-time business of his own, and had some patents to his credit.
He declared himself an atheist. He said that real education came from reading
books. He cited an article about Einstein's religious beliefs and expressed
doubts as to the article's accuracy. He was irreverent about various aspects
of formal religion, speaking about the millions of people who prayed to
God in many languages, and remarking that God must have an enormous clerical
staff to keep track of all their sins. And he ended with a long discussion
of the social and political systems of Italy and the United States that
it would take too long to describe here. He also enclosed a check for Einstein
to give to charity.

On 24 March 1954 Einstein answered in English as follows:

I get hundreds and hundreds of letters but seldom one so interesting
as yours. I believe that your opinions about our society are quite reasonable.

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions,
a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal
God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something
is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration
for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

I have no possibility to bring the money you sent me to the appropriate
receiver. I return it therefore in recognition of your good heart and intention.
Your letter shows me also that wisdom is not a product of schooling but
of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.

From p. 66

There is in the Einstein Archives a letter dated 5 August 1927 from
a banker in Colorado to Einstein in Berlin. Since it begins "Several
months ago I wrote you as follows," one may assume that Einstein had
not yet answered. The banker remarked that most scientists and the like
had given up the idea of God as a bearded, benevolent father figure surrounded
by angels, although many sincere people worship and revere such a God.
The question of God had arisen in the course of a discussion in a literary
group, and some of the members decided to ask eminent men to send their
views in a form that would be suitable for publication. He added that some
twenty-four Nobel Prize winners had already responded, and he hoped that
Einstein would too. On the letter, Einstein wrote the following in German.
It may or may not have been sent:

I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the
actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures
of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic
causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science.

My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior
spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory
understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance-but
for us, not for God.

From pp. 69-70

A Chicago Rabbi, preparing a lecture on "The Religious Implications
of the Theory of Relativity," wrote to Einstein in Princeton on zo
December 1939 to ask some questions on the topic. Einstein replied as follows:

I do not believe that the basic ideas of the theory of relativity can
lay claim to a relationship with the religious sphere that is different
from that of scientific knowledge in general. I see this connection in
the fact that profound interrelationships in the objective world can Ije
comprehended through simple logical concepts. To be sure, in the theory
of relativity this is the case in particularly full measure.

The religious feeling engendered by experiencing the logical comprehensibility
of profound interrelations is of a somewhat different sort from the feeling
that one usually calls religious. It is more a feeling of awe at the scheme
that is manifested in the material universe. It does not lead us to take
the step of fashioning a god-like being in our own image-a personage who
makes demands of us and who takes an interest in us as individuals. There
is in this neither a will nor a goal, nor a must, but only sheer being.
For this reason, people of our type see in morality a purely human matter,
albeit the most important in the human sphere.